WWE Hall of Famer Bret "The Hitman" Hart isn't one to mince his words, and he shared his take on the state of professional wrestling today during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.
Hart shared his preference for how things were in the 1990s and admitted that he's no fan of how many wrestlers now prioritise athleticism and stunts over pure grappling. Addressing the state of the much-maligned AEW, Hart went as far as to label the company's stars as "actors."
"I do [watch]," he started. "I watch certain guys, and I try to watch the pay per views. I find that the wrestlers are more actors pretending to be wrestlers today than actual wrestlers. I miss the ruggedness of the characters like Curt Hennig and myself, or Dynamite Kid. We were still from the Harley Race, Terry Funk kind of generation. I still think the 90s was the best era of wrestling.”
"I find that today’s wrestling, it’s a little bit more about promos and your character on TV, and not so much your work rate. I like guys that throw back a little bit more to the work rate, like Roman Reigns is a guy for example that I think tries really hard to earn the respect of my generation and be more realistic and more credible, more believable, and not so much an actor," Hart continued.
"I find that, especially AEW, that I find that they’re mostly actors trying to pretend to be wrestlers...[they] ought to get on with real wrestling and just quit acting so much."
Despite burying the hatchet following the Montreal Screwjob, Hart has happily shared his real thoughts on disgraced former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon since those sexual misconduct allegations first surfaced.
The Hitman has no love for Vince, and while he doesn't dismiss his contributions to the business, Hart agrees with fans that the WWE product has improved greatly since Triple H started calling the shots.
"I feel that as great as he was, as great as far as ideas and imagination, and, in a lot of ways, there’s nobody like him," Hart acknowledged. "At the same time, I feel that he governed things in a shady way. I’ll feel that he didn’t care necessarily about the craft."
"I always thought about the fact that what he did to me, I like to think I was his greatest artist, and in the end, I was just another, you know, get rid of him. Boom. He’s done. I think as much greatness as Vince brought to wrestling, he also brought a lot of negative, kind of corrupted thinking to it."
"It’s kind of hard to explain. I think there’s a little more integrity right now," he added when Helwani asked for his take on how things have changed. "That the guys that are being pushed are being pushed because they’re talented and not because they are Vince’s favorites."
You can hear more from Hart in the player below.